Grandaddy Emery, Stories From My Mom

Edward Robert Emery and Alma Louise Lee Emery

Edward Robert Emery lived a very hard life and grew up in the depression.  He never knew his father and his mother was an alcoholic.  He had 3 sisters (Ruth, Mae, and Grace) and a brother (Charles).

His house had 2 sides, one side the rented out and the other they lived in.  The children were left to fend for themselves most of the time.  His grandmother stayed with them some and would help.  He said that he would fight on the street corner as a little boy when he was about 10.  If he won the fight, he would get a quarter.  He also said he would steal tomatoes from off of the missionaries back porch to eat.  The missionaries taught him the gospel and he was baptized when he was 10.  He never went to church again.  He made Grandmother get baptized after they got married and they never went to church.  When my dad was 8 he made him get baptized and they never went to church.  After my mom and dad were married, the missionaries knocked on the door one day when my dad was at work.  My mom told dad about it and was so excited to join the church.  He said “we are already members”.  My mom was baptized the next week and we always went to church. 

Jesse and Mildred Jackson, Cheryl and Eddy Emery, Alma Louise and Edward Emery

Agnes Evelyn Joyner Emery (Edwards Mother)

I remember Grand daddy being very generous and kind when I was little.  He smoked and worked construction with my dad at a nuclear power plant when I was in high school.  As I got older, he became very difficult to be around.  He was very grouchy and did not use kind words to anyone.  He was actually arrested one time for disorderly conduct when he was about 70 and had to serve community service by playing the organ at the retirement home.  He could play VERY well even though he never had a lesson.  He could play anything by ear.  When he played he seemed happier.

He was always supportive of everything we did in church, but he never went.  He bought us a piano so we could take lessons and he would come over and play sometimes on Sundays.